Last month, Mary Boyle received a phone call that every school official dreams of.
Representatives from Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln called to ask Boyle, the assistant superintendent of educational services for the Western Placer Unified School District, if there was anything the district needed.
“I was astounded at their generosity,” Boyle said. “I told them we could use some paper.”
That’s exactly what she got on Sept. 16 when a huge Thunder Valley Casino truck unloaded 400 reams, which is equivalent to 2 million sheets of office paper, to the school district.
“The whole thing came together so quickly,” Boyle said. “Our district warehouse was cleaned out last week to make room for the delivery.”
According to Chuck Sproat, manager for employment and communications for Thunder Valley Casino, who was on hand when the truck made its delivery, the paper donation was made possible through donations from Thunder Valley employees and unclaimed currency that had accumulated in the casino’s lost-and-found department.
“Duane Ryzner, our executive director of security, spearheaded the idea of donating what’s accumulated in the lost and found,” Sproat said.
In addition to the office paper, which is valued at about $10,000, Sproat said about 400 casino employees donated a van full of school supplies and cash that was also delivered to the district on Sept. 16. The cash collected totaled almost $800.
“I think we’re going to use this to buy pencils,” Boyle said.
Lisa Grewohl, vice president of human resources for Thunder Valley Casino, said she was pleased that the casino could give back to the community.
“Since Thunder Valley is in Lincoln, we thought it would be good to give to our schools in Lincoln,” she said.
Boyle said the paper will be distributed to each of the district’s 11 schools based on student enrollment at each site.